Petals
by Tirainy
Summary: One day Sonic wakes up coughing out flowers. It probably says a lot about his life when he does not start panicking immediately.


**Petals**

One day Sonic wakes up coughing out flowers. It probably says a lot about his life when he does not start panicking immediately.

**TAGs:** One shot, Writing Exercise, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000, angst, romance, unrequited love, possibly unrequited love, Hanahaki disease

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.**

* * *

**_AN:_** _Hanahaki disease is a fictional illness caused by unrequited love. The affected person coughs out flowers that grow in their lungs and if their love is not returned the affected person will eventually suffocate on them._

* * *

One minute he had been contently dreaming about one of his adventures, the other he was already doubling over on himself and desperately trying to cough out whatever it had suddenly lodged in his throat.

His vision had already been darkening around the edges by the point he finally managed to get the offending object out, so it took him a moment to realize what it was.

It was a flower.

A freaking _flower._

Sonic stared in confusion at the flora, having no explanation as to how that had gotten in his throat. It was too big for him to accidentally inhale it—honestly it was almost the size of his_ palm_—and there were no flowers like this in his and Tails' house or anywhere around it anyway.

The hero turned the enigmatic flower in his hands, studying it with curiosity. Honestly, it didn't look like _any _flower Sonic knew. It was pitch-black, the petals were jagged and curling into themselves and when Sonic touched them their texture reminded him of _glass_ rather than anything else. But it _was_ a flower. Definitely.

He stared at the flora thoughtfully. _Hmm, maybe Tails will know something about this, _he mused and got up to go find his brother.

Sonic found Tails in his workshop, already tinkering away despite the early morning hour.

"Morning, Sonic!" his brother greeted from his work-bench. "You're up unusually early. Off to have a race with Shadow again?" he asked, with an oddly amused smile on his face.

"No, he's on a mission right now," Sonic retorted, kind of disappointed about the fact; after the Black Arms invasion, he had taken to challenging Shadow to race on the regular basis as a means to get to know the other closer. However, because of the agent working almost all the time, the highest chances Sonic had when he wanted to compete with the other was to try to catch Shadow on his morning commute to work and race Shadow to the GUN Headquarters.

Sonic let a faint smile on his face. It had taken time but eventually the thrill of race stopped being a necessary component for Shadow to be willing to spend time with him. Nowadays, most of the time he just accompanied Shadow to work, chatting with the agent along the way. Well, _he _did most of the chatting between them, but Shadow had gradually been opening up and contributing—

However, before Sonic could finish his thought, he was once more doubling over again and coughing out another black flower as a painful reminder why he had come down here in the first place. Tails' expression was alarmed once Sonic was_ able_ to meet it.

Thus Sonic did his best to explain.

Understandably, Tails was pretty perplexed by the situation too, but he recovered quickly, sending Sonic into one of his machines so he could check whether there were more flowers still stuck in his air-ways and then taking one of the black flowers to analyze its composition.

"Do you have any idea what's happening?" Sonic asked as he watched Tails go over his results.

"I've heard of some cases like this," Tails nodded. "It's likely you accidentally inhaled some spores and they took root in your lungs and grew into these flowers. It's rare but not impossible." Tails hummed as he sorted through the papers. "Luckily, you don't seem to have more in your lungs—but some spores might still be there so we'll need to keep an eye on that."

Sonic rubbed his chest, gazing at the flower still laying on his palm. Spores, huh? "But what exactly is this flower anyway? It looks hella_ weird_." He twisted the flower in his hand. "Kinda alien." All black and mysterious. You know, they kind of reminded him of Shadow—

"Well—" Tails snapped him out of his musings again, the young inventor taking into his hands the analysis of the flower instead. "—it _might _be. It contains an extraordinary amount of chaos energy for a flower. And well, it's not that long from the Black Arms invasion, is it? They could have unknowingly brought it here."

Well, Sonic supposed that made sense. It had been a little over a year since the invasion and some flora took years to actually blossom, it was not _out_ of the realm of possibility.

Now assured, there was nothing to worry about, Sonic was at peace.

-O-

Sonic was so_ not _at peace.

Unfortunately, the flower coughing didn't stop, it only got _worse_.

Tails continued to make more thorough tests, eventually confirming that his earlier hypothesis was wrong. There were _no _spores. As it seemed the flowers literally just _materialized _in his lungs from his _own_ chaos energy.

Tails was still looking into what the trigger was but suggested it probably had to do something with his emotions because of the nature of chaos manipulation. Sonic did his best to do his part, trying to analyze which specific emotion it could be, deliberately trying to make himself sad, angry and all the other possibilities but eventually coming out empty-handed.

All the while enigmatic black flowers continued to endlessly fall from his lips.

It had only been three days since the start of this phenomenon, but there were already dozens upon dozens of them in their house. Sonic's throat felt raw and aching from all the coughing and his body felt utterly exhausted—which he assumed was the chaos drainage caused by the copious amount of chaos energy the flowers were using up. But no matter what he did, they wouldn't stop_ falling_.

They had visited Knuckles in hope the other could shed some light onto the matter, but the echidna was just as lost as them. And even though it obviously made his skin crawl to admit it, he still suggested them to go to Shadow as the agent definitely knew more about chaos than him.

And frankly, Sonic would do it immediately, had wanted to do it since he learned the problem was of _chaotic_ origins—the problem was that Shadow was _who-knows-where_ doing _who-knows-what_ and there was no indication when he would be back.

So, in a fit of desperation, Sonic called Rouge, hoping she would at least know the _where _so he could try to find Shadow himself before the flowers send him under.

_"What do you meant? He's not on a mission," _Rouge retorted, clearly confused by his question. "_He's taken a week off. Probably to sort out something in his new house._" Sonic blinked. Wait, since when did Shadow not live at Club Rouge? Sonic was fairly sure he had seen him last there. "_Though it was kind of sudden—_"

"Where is it?" Sonic cut in. He knew he was being rude, but he wasn't really able to bring himself to care about that when his throat still felt like liquid fire and he felt another flower making up is way his—

Luckily, Rouge didn't seem to care and simply answered, _"Well, i__t's like three hours west of—_"

-O-

Shadow's house was not easy to find, hidden among the thick vegetation of a forest but Sonic managed.

It was nothing lavish, just big enough to accommodate two people—though considering Shadow's loner nature, Sonic doubted the agent would really be sharing it with somebody. Especially, if he deliberately choose a spot this far from civilization; he clearly didn't want guests that much around either.

_Well, you're getting one now, Shad, _Sonic noted mentally not wanting to risk speaking it out in case it made him cough out more flowers.

He knocked on the wooden door loudly to make sure he would be heard. However, nobody came to answer. Therefore, Sonic tried calling. No answer either.

Sonic's lips pulled into a thin line. Either Shadow was deliberately ignoring him or Rouge had been wrong about him being here. Sonic honestly hoped it was the first.

Tentatively, he tried his luck with opening the door. Surprisingly, it was unlocked.

"Shadow?" he called loudly as he opened the door, taking his first steps inside. Something crunched under his foot at the third.

Worried, Sonic looked down, raising his foot to see what it was that he had stepped into. He really hoped it wasn't anything expensive.

Blue brows furrowed in confusion at what he found.

A _flower__?_

Tentatively, the hero picked up the crumpled flower. It was a bit bigger than his palm and felt soft to the touch. Funnily, it was almost the exact color as his fur.

Though what was it doing in the middle of the hallway?

"Shadow?" Sonic called again, stepping deeper into the house, looking into the first room available, which happened to be the living room.

_What the—? _Sonic stepped into the room, letting his gaze sweep over it confusion. There were more of the blue flowers. They were scattered everywhere—on the floor and on the furniture alike. Some of them big, some of the small, some already dried up, others in full bloom. None two seemed the same.

But some of them were stained with _blood_.

Sonic tentatively raised one of the stained ones from the coffee table. It was honestly just a few droplets each but considering the amount of stained flowers, it was disturbing to say the least. It didn't seem to be fresh blood though.

Warily, Sonic went on to search rest of the house. The rest of the rooms wasn't much different. They all contained the blue flowers in various amounts. All in all, Sonic would say he had seen at least a hundred of them.

But still no signs of Shadow.

Sonic came to stand before the last door he had yet to open. Considering he had yet to see a bedroom, he assumed it to be that.

He knocked on the door. "I'm coming in," he called to give the agent a moment just in case so Shadow would have a chance to tell him to back off.

But there was no answer. Thus Sonic opened the door.

The first thing Sonic noticed were the heaps upon_ heaps_ of blue flowers littering the whole room. The second was Shadow'_s motionless_ body on the bed. The third was the single blue flower that laid right next to Shadow's head. It was almost entirely covered in_ blood_.

"Shadow!" Alarmed, Sonic rushed to the other's side. Whatever this flower disease was, Shadow clearly had it too—and much _worse_. Sonic rolled the other over and immediately pressed his head to the other's chest. With a relieved sigh, he noted the agent's heart was still beating.

"Alright, time to wake up, Shad!" he said aloud, shaking the other a little. Chaos, he hoped Shadow at least had an_ idea_— "Shadow, come on! Wake up!"

The other gave a pained groan, but eventually the red eyes did open. Shadow's brows scrunched up in confusion when their gaze settled on him. "S...onic?"

"Yeah, it's me, Shad," Sonic grinned through the pain. A petal tickled in his throat again. Sonic gulped it down.

"What are you...doing here?" Shadow huffed, arms shaking as he struggled to sit up. Sonic immediately helped him with that because, Chaos, he had never seen Shadow this weak...

"Well, it seems I've caught the same nasty as you," Sonic tried to joke. Shadow looked at him in confusion. However, before Sonic could elaborate, his lungs had already decided to do a _visual_ demonstration.

After several agonizing moment, Sonic spit out the newest black flower, heaving through the pain of his scraped, _burning _throat. "Please, tell me you know what's happening," he practically begged as he looked into the other's clearly surprised eyes.

But Shadow didn't answer. Instead a shaking striped hand took the black flower from Sonic's hand, the agent looking at it with disbelief, wonder and...marvel?

"Shadow?" Sonic tried again, but said agent only continued to stare at the flower. "Do you—?"

"The flowers are a physical manifestation of strong emotion," Shadow started quietly. Sonic immediately clasped his mouth shut. "It's very rare—only the strongest chaos users can be affected."

Sonic blinked. So Tails had been right the second time around. "What emotion?" he asked.

Tan lips pressed into a thin line and it almost looked like Shadow would not answer. But then red eyes met his and the soft confession came, "Unrequited love."

However, Sonic was not give the time to be surprised. Instead— "The form the flower takes represents the person you love." Red eyes seemed to soften marginally. "You realize what this means, right?"

"What?" Sonic was confused. He looked down at their flowers, Shadow's soft blue ones and his own black and alien. Wait, _black_ and _alien?_—_Of freaking course._ Sonic felt like hitting himself for not realizing this sooner.

"It's you," he said, pieces finally clicking into place. The flowers appeared anytime he thought about Shadow, even if only in passing. The _first _flower had appeared when he had been dreaming about their _first _meeting...

_Unrequited love,_ his mind repeated. Sonic's lips pressed into a thin line at the thought. He hadn't even _realized_ he had been crushing on Shadow all those months, too preoccupied being happy about finally getting past Shadow's protective shell and learning about the person hidden underneath...

But that was why Tails had always looked so amused when he said he was gonna visit Shadow, wasn't it? Tails had realized it before him...

"Man, this is just like us." Sonic gave a little laugh, daring to do so as the ever-present scratching feeling in his throat had _finally_ disappeared. His lungs once more free to _breath_. "Trying to kill each other with_ love_."

Shadow let out an amused snort at the remark. "Rouge has always said I was emotionally constipated."

This time it was Sonic's turn to snort. "I have to agree with that."

"I wasn't the _only_ one coughing flowers out here," Shadow pointed out.

"Yeah, but I've figured _this _out _just now_," Sonic shot back, vaguely gesturing between the two of them. "So I think I can cut myself some slack."

"...Just now?" Shadow asked, sounding somehow uncertain.

"Uh-huh," Sonic hummed. "But I'm _totally_ down for trying where this will lead us," Sonic said to reassure the other, gesturing to the two of them with a grin on his lips. "If you're too, of course."

Shadow gave him a long searching gaze, but he eventually managed, "...Friday at six?"

"It's a date."

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**AN:** Why double Hanahaki? Because I could and I have never seen it before. No other reason. XD

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**To Guest: **I'm not sure who you are specifically talking about as I've probably had not seen their story. (These days I mostly read MCU stuff.) I haven't meant to disrespect somebody and/or make them feel bad about their writing skills. I wrote this because two people over at AO3 have asked me for Hanahaki's-disease-fic and I wanted to put my own little twist on this trope.


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